Goshen High School - Crimson Yearbook (Goshen, IN)

Page 30 text:

24 THE CRIMSON June CLASS GRUMBLE BY VINCENT VALLETTE L ADIES AND GENTLEMEN: The election of the grumbler for the Class of 1910 was not only a difficult but a very interesting affair, as the choice lay among so many of sweet, mild, agreeable, complying, submissive, acquiescent disposition, but it was finally decided to choose a grumbler of absolute- ly harmless nature so that his grumbling would be attended by no fatal results or libel suits. Now grumbling for the present class is not an easy task since the class life runs along so smoothly and harmoniously. This you would readily understand if you could attend one of our class meetings, characterized, as they are, by perfect order, i. e. every one talking or argu- ing at once, if for no other reason than just to keep up with the rest, and, above this, the presi- dent shouting at the top of his voice for more order; finally as the din becomes deafening, the tall, dark fig e of our Principal looms through the door and the hubbub ebbs to a few whisper- ed complaints concerning the president such as, He is trying to run every thing , He doesn ' t give us a chance , I will not stand for it , etc. Really this is not far from the truth. Let me give you a few examples of our president ' s con- sideration for the views of others: The Seniors decided at one meeting to give a Christmas dance and, shortly afterwards, another meeting was called in which our honored president made the following remarks, Now we are going to have a Christmas dance and I have decided that it will not cost more to give a New Year ' s dance. I have engaged the orchestra and hall and now all I want is your consent. The hall and or- chestra having been engaged, there was no alter- native for the class so the grumbler grumbled and the dance was given. Another instance of his officious leadership is in the senate; you have doubtless heard of the senate of the Goshen High School. In this Senate our honored president, figuring under his political title of Senator Aldrich, a most fitting appellation, is floor leader of the republican party, and. at his bidding, the meek republicans vote as one. Now have not I, being of the Pro-, hibition party, a right to grumble at the estab- lished order of things? At the republicans in power and the democratic floor leader in cahoot with them? But nevertheless the prohibitionists are ever loyal to the main plank in their plat- form, Down with liquor, one way or another. But just here I should like to call your atten- tion to some of the attractive points of our school building. By entering the north front door, going up several flights of stairs, you wrill find yourself just beneath the roof in a seldom used room called the gymnas- ium. Basket ball practice is allowed here but no games may be played in the gym for fear the visiting teams will throw the ball through the skylight; at least I suppose that is the reason for I can find no other. Now would it not make you grumble to practice all winter and have no games? As for the dumbbells, Indian clubs, cind such apparatus in the gym., I couldn ' t im- agine what they are for. However the gymnas- ium has two good uses, as a place to send lost freshmen, and a place for the rehearsals of the clciss play. The latter occur twice a week, gen- erally however with only half the cast present. There is a noticeable need of another room in the High School for the vivesection of cats and, wliile I mention the needs of the High School, I might suggest an adjoining parlor for the recu- peration of systems easily shocked. Furthermore I think it very inconsiderate of the school board to force Dorothy Stutz to use a seat over which she can not see, and which is too high for her to write on and then expect Otis Kercher to sit in the same sized seat. I would suggest further that there should be some method of tagging the the student body and faculty so as to distinguis ' i the visiting g;rade children from some of the freshmen, and some of the students from at least one of the members of the faculty. But after all why grumble and complain after we have toiled four or five years, or longer as the case may be. Every class has had a grum- bler and every class probably will have. So let us wish the Goshen High School spirit to last forever. May it survive the imperfections of all the giants, dwarves, faculties, class presidents, and grumblers.

Page 29 text:

1910 THE CRIMSON 23 on the mysteries of hair dressing, for that had been their trade, and she ordered several suits to be made by Frank Rhodes, the famous ladies tailor. The shades were very much puzzled by the long aprons and little white nurse ' s caps which Ruth Miller, Anna Violett and Ruth Larimer still insisted on wearing, for since the shades were never ill, they had no need of nurses and had never seen any before. Still wandering about, I was not surprised to see Calvin Madlem and Earl Weaver carrying on an animated conversation with Psyche and Daphne, for, although ne ither had married in the upper world, their chief occupation had been paying court to the ladies. Ever since Dido ' s disappointing affair with Aeneas she had made it a point to bring to- gether all lovers who had separated in the uppei; world. I noticed Vincent Vcdlette quietly con- sulting her and evidently urging her to help him find a beautiful shade of small stature and ex- quisite voice for whom he had been looking ever since he had arrived. We had not been there very long when the day arrived that Aeneas had set aside (in the upper world) for celebrating memorial games in honor of his father, Anchises. Now they still celebrated in the same way except that Anchises himself presided over the games and gave the prizes, while Aeneas made all the arrangements. We were cordially asked to take part in any of the contests and I was glad to see Harry Martin, who had won such fame as a runner in High School carrying off one of the prizes in the foot- race. Leslie Leidner also astonished the shades with his great strength in throwing weights. When Aeneas heard that Harry Whitmer had been a playwright, he urged him to give one of his plays so that some of the older shades might see something of the modem life in the upper world. Taking Russell McCann, Nelson Blough, Miriam Pickering, and Madge Butler, all of whom had a short stage career, and Glenn Wise- man and Donna Woodford who had charmed the whole world with their beautiful voices, Harry was able to make up a good cast for one of his plays. The shades were very much pleas- ed with it and especially with the minstrel stunt that Jack Frankenstein and Kenneth Knox did between acts. After Ralph Swoveland and Lloyd Stetler, the philosophers of the class, discovered the shade of Plato, we saw very little of them for they sat by the hour listening to him talk. Forrest Michael and the two Juday boys were also seldom seen, for together they were trying an experiment concerning the alternation of crops which had interested them very much in life, but which they had never been able to com- plete on account of the changeable climate. As for me, it was my privilege to return to earth without drinking of the waters of the river Lethe and to write this paper. Written in the year 2920 by PAULINE HATCH.

Page 31 text:

1910 THE CRIMSON 25 CLASS ORATION— The Elements of Success ' BY FORREST FUNK O EVERY young man the time will come when he must assume the re- sponsibilities of the management of his own affairs ; the time when he, 0 and he alone, will be responsible for v ll IT H j,js Q n welfare. Advice may be showered upon him; instructions, sought and unsought, may be given him, he may have the advantages of tips, pulls, inside tracks, etc., but the initiative that seizes every oppor- tunity, the energy that follows it up and the de- termination that overcomes every obstacle, all of these qualities — so necessary to success — will have to be forthcoming from him. He himself must be the mainspring, his character and his personality must be the power behind every suc- cessful action. The world into which he is to make his ad- vent is an ever-changing one. Just as the earth is whirling through space with the speed of eighteen miles per second so the worlds of science, useful arts, discovery and invention, — are whirling along at an astonishing rate. Every movement is irresistible and inevitable. The restless impatience of hurrying thousands ac- celerates every motion The twentieth century skill adds momentarily to the al- ready great velocity of twentieth century progress. How great this speed really is and how rapidly it is increasing may be seen by a comparison of the past and the present. Elec- tricity, unknown a century and a half ago, now flashes messages around the world in four sec- onds, furnishes light for whole cities and cures innumerable diseases. Steam transports people from New York City to San Francisco in four days and from New York to Liverpool in five days, men fly, and radium promises to revolu- tionize all the theories of the composition of mat- ter. But rapid as the progress of science may seem, wonderful as the accomplishments of the present day may be to us, this progress and these accomplishments will melt into petty insignifi- cance when illuminated by the searchlight of the future. The direct result of all this haste and impatience is a competition so keen that all busi- ness life is indeed a struggle for existence. When a young man starts in life today, he throws himself into a crowd of competitors; thousands are in the same field before him, thousands v«ll crowd after him. Every friend is a competitor and every associate, a rival. The natural result of this competition is intensive rather than ex- tensive work. The business man of today must be able to get a maximum profit from a small investment rather than to derive a medium profit from a large one. The sun ' s rays admitted ' through a circular aperture two feet in diameter will sufficiently light a good sized room but the same rays focused on one point for one second would set the whole house on fire. A person of rare ability may exert an influence in various fields, he may be a good lawyer, a pretty good doctor and a fair electrician; he may, in other words, be a talented Jack of all Trades but this is not what the world demands; the man who actually accomplishes something is the man who by focusing all of his energies and concen- trating all of his attention on one thing sets himself and those about him on fire with the vigor and enthusiasm which he puts into his work. William George Jordan in his book entitled, The Kingship of Selfcontrol says that every man has two creators — his God and himself. By this he means that each man is directly re- sponsible for the kind of life he leads or, in other words, his life is what he makes it. The talents of different men may be different, but that is no reason why one man should succeed and another fail. It is not what we have, but how we use what we have that determines the result of our lives. Rankin once said that a spiderweb run- ning on pulleys with the velocity of light would drive all the machinery in England. Let us use our talents honestly and diligently, however few and insignificant they may seem, realizing with Longfellow that Success is simply doing what we can do well, without a thought of fame and knowing that our true and ultimate success will be measured not by what we have but by what we are.